The main problem with Dune is that it's huge. Ecological issues may be timely but if you consider the Fremen as a bunch of religious wackos (which they are) blowing stuff up (which they do) while high on drugs (which they are - hence blue eyes) there are some other "timely" issues which could raise parallels as well.

Lynch's Dune essentially eviscerated the book of its middle 400 pages and then got shafted by the studio because it was even more impenetrable than it ended up being (I really like it btw). Then the mini-series came along and did a good job of putting some of it back in thanks to the extra four hours to play with. You still can't replace Jurgen Prochnow with William Hurt though.

Saw that John Harrison is exec producing this new version. He produced the mini-series. Which basically means he knew how he wanted sandworms to llok in the mini-series but didn't have the budget.

Ecological issues may be timely but if you consider the Fremen as a bunch of religious wackos (which they are) blowing stuff up (which they do) while high on drugs (which they are - hence blue eyes) there are some other "timely" issues which could raise parallels as well.

Yeah, I seem to remember one of the reverend mother's with the Fremen calling their rise a "Jihad."

Herbert blends together many religious ideas, including that of Jihad into one sort of uber religion. It is really interesting, and may be one of my favorite books of all time. The thing is it has to be adapted and the plot is huge, which makes it really hard toencapsulate in a film. I really enjoy the David Lynch production, it is the closest thing ot a real sort of adaptation there is to date. The sci-fi channel miniseries I never watched past the first one; it was getting all the character and plot points but I couldn't take the way it was acted, and budgeted. Not the fault of the producers who were probablt working wonders with the budget they were given, but still hard to take.

Teh question is can someone get the spirit of the Lynch movie and infuse it into a movie that really reflects the characters and plot of the book. Who knows it is a gigantic project, and I hope it succeeds, if for no other reason than I would like ot see something truly great come from Dune.

Maybe I should give the miniseries a second chance and see what is out there in it's entirety before I jusdge the possibilities good or bad, and that includes the Children of Dune as well.

@Thom B. - Wankfest or no, after having read The Metabarons and seen The Holy Mountain and El Topo, I would murder a man in front of his own mother to see Jodorowsky's take on Dune. With that said, I look forward to the new effort.

As orwellseyes notes, it has THE GREATEST PERFORMANCE EVER IN THE WORLD (to feature the word "wooooorrrrmms"). Berkoff and Susan Sarandon bite off great big chunks of scenery whenever they appear. But, you know, it's actually not terrible. It has changes, and compressions, and at least one performance that should never ever have been printed, but it's the closest thing to Frank Herbert's Dune that's ever been on the screen. The CG scenes that open the "chapters" of the mini, accompanied by an excellent theme (that's now ripped off for movie trailers all the time), are really very good, with ornithopters swooping around Arrakeen and that...

Warren, I'm curious which performance you thought should have been cut?

I really liked the mini-series. James McAvoy (of Atonement and Last King of Scotland) does some fun things with the Leto II character, probably one of the weirdest characters in the series. In the books, he becomes a living god emperor, crushing humanity to save it. In the mini they show him almost giddy at the transformation of his body. It got to some of the fun stuff nicely. Dune is Opera, it's meant to be big and loud and bold.

@howyadoin: "It wouldn't be hard, considering how laughably bad the visuals were in that movie." Wha? For a pre-cg movie the visuals were pretty good! I like the 80's fantasy aesthetic a bit too much though. The framing was good along with the production design. In fact I couldn't endure Children of Dune that well because of the way stuff looked too medievil.

I hoped they'd wait another ten years to remake Dune so that I COULD DO IT. For the last five years it's been my answer whenever anyone asks me "what book/film would you like to adapt/remake".

Goddamn it, I'll just feel awkward now.

Berg seems an odd choice. I saw the trailers for Kingdom and refused to go and see it. A bunch of Americans, searching for terrorist 'mastermind' Abu Hamza? WE ALREADY GOT HIM. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Ahem. Plus, there's no way he's a mastermind since he blew off both his own hands and one of his eyes while making bombs at home.

"The Kingdom" is a fairly weird movie. On the one hand it attempts to show the difference between the ruling class in Saudia Arabia and the extremists, but it does so with the subtlety of a pry bar to the forehead. And when it simply turns into "go get'em the bad mooslims" it gives up on any pretense.

I liked The Kingdom. Until the last 15-20 minutes, it's brilliant. As such, I have faith that this guy won't completely fuck up Dune, even though it really doesn't need to be remade. But I won't complain when another artist wants to show me his take on what is probably my single very favorite novel ever. He's likely wanted to make this movie since he first read the book, and can finally afford to do it. I'll bite.